I have been framed! Or...at least...my photos were shot that way.

On the last blog entry, I purposely held back images from the recent trip to Boston. I wanted to focus this blog post specifically on the framing of an image. As many photographers will profess, a good image needs a strong foreground, mid-ground and background. It is also important to frame your images to make an image stronger and to draw attention to your main subject.

Prints can be framed, criminals can be framed, doors can be framed, and using your camera and your eyes, your photos can be framed.

This image, which I did include in the previous post, is a good example of image framing. I could have shot the same image without the arch at the top of the image. But, the curve of the arch and the addition of the staircase adds a frame of darker shadows, which draws the viewers attention to the middle of the image. 

I shot this image through a glass window which was inset into a beautiful door. I could have easily opened the door and taken an image of these people studying, but I wanted to use the shape of the window and the surrounding pattern to frame my main subject. 

And again, in this shot, instead of just showing the main reading room in the library, I backed up behind one of the entries and took this shot of the book cases and clock. As much as I liked this shot, I thought that it might be nice to shoot it a little tighter.

So...again...I backed up a little more, and this time framed the shot horizontally and a little lower. I really like the way that the book case creates a natural frame of the main reading room.